


Penniless

by desperationandgin



Category: Outlander (TV)
Genre: F/M, post episode: the false bride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 20:37:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperationandgin/pseuds/desperationandgin
Summary: Claire finally has the conversation with Jamie she meant to after seeing ghosts in the woods.





	Penniless

**Author's Note:**

> This is a teeny tiny baby fic I wrote back in November after _False Bride_ aired. I originally only posted it on tumblr but for some reason, never put it here. Also, I guess THIS was technically my first fic but no one's read it, lol.

It astounds him, sometimes, the way she loves him. His fingers trace the curve of her jaw slowly, ghosting across that pale skin that nearly seems to glow in the light of the fire. Asleep like this he can take his time to soak in every feature of her, the way her curls are tight at the base of her skull then looser by her ears. The gray that makes the brown locks stand out even more. Now, under the moonlight, he lightly tugs at a curl, enough to make it bounce back effortlessly, a smile tugging at his lips.

Leaning in close, his nose lightly grazes her cheek as he speaks quietly in Gaelic; a prayer, a promise of his protection even here in this new land.

The words make her stir and Claire shifts, breathing him in even as she opens her eyes. “What?”

Jamie smiles, lightly kissing her lips. “Just a prayer, Sassenach. That you’ll be safe. In this new land, I dinna ken if I could go on if ye left. If I lost you.” Her night alone during the storm is fresh on his mind, and though all was well, he knows she was thrown from her horse. It could have been a great deal worse.

“You won’t lose me, Jamie,” she murmurs, reaching out to cradle his face with one hand, to trace her fingers over his cheek lightly. “We haven’t come all this way only to lose one another now. I won’t believe that.”

Leaning down, his lips press to her forehead as his fingers drag through her hair before kissing her lips. “You love me then, Sassenach? Enough to take this risk wi’ me?”

His words make her sit up so that she can fully look at him, forehead knitting together. “I love you, Jamie Fraser. Whether we’re lying together on a ship or out here under the stars, or in a home you’ve built for us.” She pauses, bringing his hand to her lips so she can kiss his wrist that still bears a faint scar from their wedding day. “Or a brothel.” She can’t help it, it’s too easy even if it is the same joke twice in such a short amount of time.

His quiet laugh is rich, his smile making the corners of his eyes wrinkle, and he kisses her wrist in return. “I ken ye love me, Claire. The first time, when you chose to stay wi’ me at the stones. An’ the second time, when ye came back to me not knowing what might have changed, only knowing that your love for me and our love together could weather any storm.” He kisses her wrist once more, then up her arm slowly. “I kent it when ye put the protection of yer heart in my hands.” His lips press to her skin now, just above her breast, over her heart. When he speaks, his scruff lightly scrapes her skin. “Ye love me to the depths of your verra soul, Sassenach. And I, you.”

Slowly, one of Claire’s hands moves to rake through his curls, free from the ponytail he’s been keeping them in. “And I don’t need jewels or fine things to do it,” she says softly, finally able to get out what she’d wanted to before. “You are all I need, Jamie. As long as we’re together, we could keep living just like this for all I care. I traveled two hundred years to be with you. Not to have material things.” Now, both hands cradle his face as she looks into his eyes, wanting him to see how much she means it. “I love you, Jamie.”

He doesn’t respond with words; instead, he leans down to kiss her lips soundly before gathering her into his arms. He made a vow once, to love this woman well, and he intends to. He’ll show her in ways only she will ever see and know. “I’m no’ but a penniless man, Sassenach.”

“And when we met, I was a penniless woman.”

“A pair then, are we?”

Claire smiles softly, a quiet laugh falling against his lips as she nuzzles her nose against his before answering his question.

“Aye.”


End file.
